How To Choose The Right Medium Pub

Do you need to? How do you know which one is right for you?

My dog, Moon Pie, is clearly sick of my complaining. My photo.

I’ve been writing on Medium since 2017. It started simply enough. It was a nice platform for me to put down some words and share my thoughts without too much technological hubbub. My early submissions were scattered. I wrote about whatever flight of fancy popped into my brainpan, such as the story of Mike, the chicken that was beheaded for dinner but lived for many months afterward and became famous for it.

[embed]Stranger than fiction *Mike — The Miracle Headless Chicken medium.com*

The story got almost no views. How could only TWO people want to read about this? It’s about a chicken with its head literally cut off that LIVED!!! C’Mon!

Looking back, I saw that the title that popped up was “Stranger Than Fiction” rather than Mike-The Miracle Headless Chicken. As a reader, I might have missed this one as well. I think I was trying to format the piece for a particular publication, rather than letting it fly on its own merits. Did it hinder people's ability to read that intriguing title? I think it was the first piece I submitted to a pub. I had no idea what I was doing.

I still don’t.

My question for the Medium Universe is this. Do we, as writers, need to have a Pub back our articles? This is a question I’ve had in the back of my mind, a dark and scary cobwebby place, for a long time. What do Pubs do for us? I’m sure there are good answers out there, and I’d love to hear them.

I’ve used a few Pubs, Crow’s Feet, in particular, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know some of the folks who also contribute. This group of writers resonates with my sensibilities. Maybe that’s the reason to submit — a sense of community? My biggest issue is following all the different rules that each Pub rightfully puts down. First off, I can’t remember who wants what and how they want it. Some Pubs are pretty loose and fancy-free. Some want their writers to kowtow to a very specific tune. I always have to pause and look up the rules. I then have to remember what Publication takes which kind of article. Once submitted, a grace period may be allowed as the editors request changes. I start to glaze over.

[embed]Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age “The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” (Frank Lloyd Wright) Non-fiction pieces, personal essays and…medium.com

This is nothing against Pubs.

This is more about whether or not it pays to submit to them. I’ve never been boosted, so maybe that’s one of the reasons a writer should submit. Not all Pubs can boost a story, however, and I’m not really sure what the upshot of boosting is. I’ve read several articles that suggest it doesn’t yield a monetary windfall or a surge in new readers. Over the past five years, I’ve built a modest and loyal following on Medium. I appreciate every time I see new followers, although the word “follower” seems a little stalk-y to me. Would they have found me without a Publication attached to my story?

Let’s talk about all the clapping.

This tirade has nothing to do with pubs, so bear with me. I’m an actress by trade. My ego and I love a healthy round of applause, so I appreciate it every time someone comes along, reads my story, and hits those little clappy hand icons. Here is the rub. You have to keep poking those things until you’ve given what one might deem a respectable amount of claps. What is the right amount? Five? Ten? Is there a sliding scale of appreciation? Can we use one clap and make it equal to ten? Perhaps consider a second icon with multiple hands to represent the heavy-handed clapping? Do we really have to pound that icon to death? I read on my phone, and trying to hit those itty bitty hands multiple times usually sends me in different directions. Is there a trick I’m missing?

I don’t want to insult any fellow writers who get some oddball number of claps. I’m also OCD, so I tend to do even numbers only, rounding up the writer’s total number of claps to whatever the next even number is. I tend to cut myself off at ten because I can’t keep hitting those hands. If a writer has, say, 115 claps, I’ll give them five more to make it an even 120. If they have 121, I’ll add nine more. You get the idea. I consider claps as tips, without any monetary involvement on my part. I sometimes clap right at the beginning of an article, too, because I’m afraid I’ll forget and move to the next piece, or get interrupted and “stiff” the writer. It’s too much pressure!

I love finding new and exciting writers to read.

I spend part of my day trying to discover people whose thought process aligns with my own or, better yet, turns it on its ear. I pay attention to who they write for. I’ll go fishing for a particular publication that they write for, thinking back to being like-minded. Right now, I write for about a dozen pubs, but I always have to hit pause while I figure out who might want my latest and greatest. I have been ghosted a few times as well. Not going to lie. That hurts. I submitted a very personal grief story to a publication that specializes in it, followed all their rules, and never heard a word. It’s cool if I’m not a good fit or my story didn’t work for them, but at least give me a shout out.

Image by Available Psychologists for Unsplash

So that’s my story, kids.

To submit or not to submit. I welcome your thoughts. Thanks, as always, for stopping by and reading my words.